Announcing a new BLOG_Passing America_drive-by paintings fromthe Great Plains

Passing America__a sketch 5 miles south of Roaring Springs, on the Texas High Plains

ANNOUNCING

A NEW BLOG 

V....Vaughan Passing America

I have been given another solo museum show at the Great Plains Art Museum at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. The exhibit opens in October, 2011. For the next 2 years I will be extending the themes of my own Last Year on the Farm. America's small farms are passing away, and the landscape is changing. Especially in the Great Plains. I want to explore what that means and how it can be communicated. I am an impressionist and will paint the Passing of family farms in a special way...on the move, as I pass by on the roads and rails of the plains.

My new blog is documenting every step of the way...see where I have been so far and please sign up to follow! This will NOT be a daily painting effort, but I will post as I prepare works for the exhibit and while I travel the plains.

BELOW: Grazing Along__sketch for that painting I keep promising to show...TOMORROW!....maybe

E-mail vvaughan8@yahoo.com
web www.v-vaughan.com

Grazing Trio_cow, angus, egrets, sketch

Grazing Trio___5.5 x 8.5 sketch
I have been painting this week, but not well enough to photograph the cow painting I began as a demo Tuesday night...Actually I lost most of the day, doing some heavy duty house cleaning and solving a self inflicted cell phone problem...TOMORROW I will finish and post the Angus painting. I am on the verge of creating so much anticipation that I hope it's not a let-down!

Angus Place_sketch, pen, Black Angus, cow

"Angus Place"___from my sketchbook, 5.5 x  8.5
I am still sketching the angus this week, preparing paintings, and working out problems, all while re-configuring my studio...I FINALLY finished that project today!
The demo I did last night was a good start! (Notice I chose to NOT post it, yet). There was a good crowd of at least 40, so I chose to work BIG, though I only had about 45 minutes...I hope to post it tomorrow!

Big Boy___black cow, angus, pen sketch, cattle

"Big Boy"...sketching a lotta bull!

This is officially "angus Week" for me, since I will be painting an angus scene tonite at a demo I am doing for an art club nearby. I have been enjoying the sketches, and when it came time to prepare reference for a demo, the angus angle seemed just right! I will post it tomorrow, unless it comes out awful...

Some of you, my "regulars" replied a few weeks ago that you'd like to follow my new blog "Passing America..." I will get more info out on that sometime during the Holidays. I created the blog this week, and am learning new things about Blogger. Since I started this blog a few years ago, I have done NOTHING to update it...just too busy to get on that roll, but last night I really got into it. It appears that while working on the new blog, I must have ordered changes or updates for this one , too, because it LOOKS different....UH OH, I hope I didn't lose all my archived content....

Angus Reflection_cow, angus, black, sketch

Angus Reflection__from my sketchbook__8.5 x 5.5__$50
We have water in Texas now....ahhhhh
I am moving my studio downstairs this week...what a chore! I don't have an easel I like down there, yet, so twill be sketches this week!

Big Nap_sketch, Dog, pen drawing, Great Dane

Big Nap__a sketch of Romeo, my Good Dane___5.5 x 8.5__$90
Romeo, my "good" Dane does not leave my side. He just had a birthday last week, making him 6, which is real OLD in Great Dane years. As I sketched him, he fell deeper and deeper to sleep and by the time I was done, that right ear was on the floor, along with his drooly jowels...
Well, I was wrong about the football game being on national TV....but son Samuel did get his opportunity and played all but a couple of plays in a great game against Texas' 10th ranked team. They held them off for most of the game, and except for a couple of missed big plays, the Round Rock Dragons did well in a 14 - 31 loss! Sam threw a couple of touchdown passes and had one good run! ...He is sad that his football season is over, so guess what he did today???...went to the batting cages for some baseball action...Happy Sunday!

November Moon_Full moon, Texas Hill Country, night

November Moon__12 x 16 oil on linen___available
Monday night was a beautiful full moonrise, and some of my artist friends and I met to paint it. I could not stay long, so ended up with a study while there, which I worked on in the studio today.Couple a bad photographer (me) with a bad monitor (mine) and you have an explanation as to why there are two versions of this painting today. It's the same painting, but I cannot tell which one looks closest to the original, since my monitor is unreliable these days. So, pick the BEST one, and that's what the painting looks like!
Our Central Texas moonrises are the BEST! Maybe because there are sweeping views of the distance and one gets a good feeling of the majesty of creation. I will be teaching a workshop in February at the beautiful Fredericksburg Artists School. We will take on the moon! ...and probably a couple of sunrises and sunsets, too. Come if you can, Feb 5 - 7. Click the FAS link for info.

Midnight Pie_sketch, old people, grandparents

"Midnight Pie"___an old sketch while Grandmother told me the story....
Grandmother Helen was a fearless cook, and often tried new recipes. But Pappy's favorite dish of all was Grandmother's cherry pie. She told me the story about how one time, neither of them could sleep, so they went outside together, in the moonlight, on the front porch at 8 Sunset Trail, Sunset Valley, south Austin, TX...a sleepy little community, established over 60 years ago...a place where the yards were big enough that they had a small stable full of horses in the back. They sat in the metal chairs there with Pappy eating a big piece of cherry pie...she in her robe, he in his birthday suit! I couldn't get this image out of my mind and HAD to sketch it. ...haha!!....I have been looking for the sketch to share with the family, but didn't find it till today...too late for the funeral.

To FULLY understand this, please look back at my blog from a few days ago, where I tell about the passing of a great lady, Helen Vaughan, my grandmother (for the past 33 years).
http://vvaughan.blogspot.com/2009/10/seventy-years-agocows-angus-farm.html

Our family came together for Grandmother Helen's funeral, yesterday in San Antonio. The cemetery there is just full of family, and walking among the headstones was, somehow, comforting. ...In my blog post few days ago There is a photo of Helen and her best friend/cousin, Dorothy, who also passed away last week. What a moment to see Dorothy's fresh grave right there by Helen's. The stories and memories were flying and a few new memories were made...especially for the youngest kids in the family.
I will always have this vision of midnight pie, and probably will not be satisfied till I paint it someday.

Fall Flight_Geese, goose

"Fall Flight"___7 x 8 framed size....oil on matt board, framed and ready to hang__$190
I worked this study from some reference photos I took in Maryland last fall. There was a pasture full of Canada Geese grazing, and flocks were flying over at the same time. I have been to the Eastern Shore several times in the fall and am always amazed at how many birds gather there. I am still not sure if they are there for the winter, or are just passing through on their way south. To me, Maryland is "way north".
Since I have two more years of high school football, I will not be going to Maryland in the fall (or any place for that matter) till 2011. Till then, I will stay close to home and in the studio! As fun as travel is, and as exciting as art selling and painting all over the country are, there is NOTHING to compare with watching your own young "chicks" prepare to fly out on their own!...I FINALLY believe what everyone told me: "They grow so fast!"

Geranium Day_geraniums, red flowers

"Geranium Day"___12 x 12 demo. Oil in linen panel___$ wet and available $ to the first who asks

At the end of a great workshop, yesterday, the light was low and fell perfectly on these geraniums at D.'s place, so I did a quick demo...the bottom image was what I ended the day with: a "nearly finished" 30 - 45 minute demo. The top image is how it looks after about another hour of tweaks. I put little containers under the "floating stems" on the left side...and added some juicy paint for the finish. The light caught me off guard, today...the sun sets an hour earlier...so I photographed the finish in VERY warm sunset light...if you are interested in it, please et me send you a better image :)

state 1_Geranium Day...

"Shadows on Dee's Hilltop"___6 x 8 oil study on canvas panel___$100

Today was my last workshop of the year...My last real event for 2009, and it ended with a bang! We had a FULL workshop who met at the home of the organizer, D. ...the morning demo was from her hilltop, looking across the way to a beautiful ridge of Texas Hill Country....the group has decided to meet there for the full moon on Monday night, and I can't wait!

For you football fans, my young son finally saw action for nearly three quarters of the game last night. I told him that if they let him run the ball he needs to run it to OUR sideline so that I can get good film...what a nice kid...he did it just for me! ...and he threw well, too...and the team played well so the Dragons won...

Canada Fall_ Canada goose, fall color

Canada Fall___oil on mat board with frame__Framed size 8 x 10 or so___Framed price $175
I have a little batch of frames that were assembled too small for my paintings, so I am working up a few studies on the matt backing. Here is a little Canada Goose from photos I took in Maryland last fall.
Off to a football game, now! Next week our Round Rock Dragons will be on ESPN-U for their High School game of the week. We will play the state ranked Stony Point Tigers, also in Round Rock...stay tuned! Look for the tall thin QB, my son, a junior back-up QB #14...

Seventy Years Ago_cows, angus, farm, landscape

"Seventy Years Ago"___3.5 x 16 oil on linen panel___click to enlarge___$250
I imagine that seventy years ago this farmscape probably looked just about the same. I painted it today from a photo, using a long piece of linen panel I have....It was a pensive moment as I painted this, now looking back on my relationship with a wonderful lady who passed into eternity, yesterday. Her picture is below, taken 70 years ago!!
Helen Vaughan was my husband's Grandmother, my children's GREAT-Grandmother. I counted her as my Grandmother, too, since I lost all mine while I was young. She was from that Great American generation which loved freedom and worked hard for everything they had. She rode and trained Arabian horses til she was past 80! She was the youngest at heart as anyone could be...never getting TOO set in her ways. But her GREATEST ability was that she was able to make YOU the center of attention. She had a way of engaging in conversation that never pointed to herself, and she did this by asking questions. Questions that could NOT be answered by merely a "yes" or "no": "What is your favorite thing to think about?" "What did you enjoy playing when you were little?" "Tell me about your best friend when you were ten"...A few days ago she asked me "what month is this"? I said "It's October..."and had to bite my tongue, because I ALMOST reminded her that in a few days it would be the day that her beloved Eddie, our Pappy died, in 2001....She was a Texas woman through and through, but "all-girl" as she loved dolls, and shoes and accessorizing! ...we all laughed at the contents of her suitcase, which she took to the hospital a few weeks ago: about 300 packets of sweet-n-low and 7 pairs of shoes! I do not remember seeing anything else in that suitcase....Grandmother seemed to wait till she had seen everyone yesterday, and just as the last few family members left for a bite of dinner, she left us....October 28, 2009, exactly one month past her 97th birthday, and EXACTLY, to the day, 8 years after Pappy died...same day...
She loved Jesus, and now is alive like Him, forever....THANK YOU, Lord for Grandmother Helen.
Helen Vaughan (left) and Dorothy Miller, her life-long best friend ...Dorothy just died this week, too....The photo was taken in 1939. Seventy years ago.

Bovine Winner_cows, angus, farm

Looking Forward_ 20 x 30 oil on linen__available!
This past weekend was the first annual show for the American Society of Bovine Artists...yes, Bovine. And yes, I am a (new) proud member! I am also proud to be the first winner of the first show. The painting above is a studio version of my field study from "Last Year on the Farm", my series of 365 paintings of my last year....all 365 paintings are on my web site, if you have not seen them, yet, please go look!
This art is also the image I chose for the cover of my book about it. The book title is "Last Year onthe Farm: A Story of Change. You can see the first 10 pages of the book here http://www.blurb.com/books/196927
...Today is a sad day. My husband's beloved grandmother, Helen Vaughan, who we call "Grandmother", was placed in Hospice care. She may not live long. I will like to tell about her beautiful life...she just turned 97...was born the year that the Titanic sank....wow. She lives very close to me, so I am going to spend the night there tonight and may not be in touch much for a while...please enjoy my links.